Landslide victory


A landslide victory is an electoral victory in a political system, when a change in people's views on political matters results in one candidate or party receiving an overwhelming majority of the votes or seats in the elected body, thus all but utterly eliminating the opponents. Part of the reason for a landslide victory is sometimes a bandwagon effect, as a significant number of people may decide to vote for the party which is in the lead in the pre-election opinion polls, whereas they wouldn't have voted the same way if it seemed unpopular. The term is borrowed from geology, where a landslide takes almost everything with it on its way, creating a change in the landscape.
For some people, a landslide victory is synonymous to an overwhelming victory, but there is no consensus on how wide a margin is necessary for an overwhelming or lopsided victory is necessary to justify a landslide. In this usage, there is no inherent shift from one side to the other, no change in the landscape.

Canada

In a Canadian federal election, a landslide victory occurs when a political party gains a significant majority of the House of Commons of Canada.
Landslide victories may also occur during provincial elections, and territorial elections in Yukon. Landslide victories are not possible for territorial elections in the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, as its members are elected without reference to political parties, operating as a consensus government.
The following Canadian federal elections resulted in landslide victories:

Since 1958

Because of Germany's multi-party mixed-member proportional representation system, it is extremely difficult for any one party to gain a majority in the Bundestag. Thus, a landslide election occurs when a party gains close to a majority and has a large margin over its main opponent in the popular vote and are very rare.
Before 1993, New Zealand used the traditional first-past-the-post system as in the U.K. to determine representation in its Parliament. Thus, landslide elections at that time were defined in an identical fashion, i.e. where one party got an overwhelming majority of the seats. Since 1993, New Zealand has used the mixed member proportional system as in Germany, making landslides much less likely.
In 1941, the Nacionalista Party won the presidency, vice presidency, all seats in Senate and all but 3 seats in the House of Representatives. This was the biggest landslide in Philippine history. The legislators won't serve until 1945 though, due to World War II.
Starting in 1987, the Philippines evolved into a multi-party system, and coupled with the introduction of party-list elections in 1998, no party was able to win a landslide, much less a majority of seats, in the House of Representatives since then. This has also meant that no presidential and vice presidential election winner won a majority of votes, although in 1998, the winners were described in having landslide victories, despite winning less than a majority of votes, due to large winning margins. Senatorial landslides are more possible though in midterm elections, as voters are usually presented with two distinct choices.

Presidential and vice presidential elections

In the Philippines, while there are presidential tickets, the positions of president and vice president are elected separately.
In UK General Elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.
Notable landslide election results:

Scotland
A landslide victory in U.S. Presidential elections occurs when a candidate has an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College.